Areva’s Imouraren Uranium Mine to Start Output by Mid-2015

Areva SA (AREVA), the world’s second-biggest
uranium mining company, will start production at the troubled
Imouraren mine in Niger by the second quarter of 2015, a company
official said.

Areva has discussed security issues for workers at the
operation in the northeast of the country, Olivier Wantz, senior
executive vice president for mining business, told reporters
today in the capital, Niamey. “We will start production at
Imouraren mine in mid-2015,” he said.

Production at the largest uranium reserve after Olympic Dam
in Australia was originally due to start in 2012 but has been
postponed several times due to security problems, including the
September 2010 kidnapping of employees by suspected members of
al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Niger will get 23 billion CFA francs ($45.7 million) from
Areva as “compensation” for the delay in operations, Hassoumi
Massaoudou, the chief of staff in Niger’s presidency, said in
January.

The mine will double production in Niger and make the
country the world’s biggest uranium supplier after Kazakhstan,
according to the company’s website.